For some systems you can obtain Dell operating system images through Dell Hosted image

Note: not all systems and service tags will have an image available for download.

Note: Even though Dell Hosted Images have USB3 drivers slip streamed in, they may not include the IRST driver at this time. ( some may know this at the F6 driver ). As a result you may need to install the IRST driver manually during the Windows install process.

Dell is currently working to add the IRST driver to the Dell Hosted Images. No ETA on when this will happen at this time.

Please note that I'm not an expert on drive performance but I have my statement for you below:

It's my understanding that the number of lanes is a separate specification from the actual throughput speed supported by any one model. Example: 4X throughput from say a E5570 may be different from the 4X throughput speed on a Precision 7710. When I submit my questions to Dell engineering they're not related to throughput speed and historically, Dell does not give out exact throughput speeds per model.

@Markus15,

Thank you for your kind feedback. Yes, I plan to get more information on the new models in the near future. Below is what I have so far for your 5580

I wasn't able to get exact technical detail on the RAID behavior. However, the assumption is that the two 4X drives will run at the same performance as the 2X drive it's grouped with in the RAID 5. Same goes with RAID 0 and RAID 1.

As to your class 50 question: Drive classes and lanes are considered separate. Class 50 drives have slightly better performance than a class 40 drive. Class 40 and class 50 drives can work with either 2 lane support for 4 lane support. In other words a class 50 drive will have slightly better performance on a 2 lane port when compared with a class 40 on a 2 lane port. Same goes when you have 4 lanes and comparing performance between class 40 and 50.

I went back to Dell engineering and they confirmed that there are physical limits on the Vostro 5468 motherboard that only allow support for M.2 SATA. I've reported this fact to the documentation team and the NVME support claimed in the user's guide is going to be removed.

@cs42,

I will work on getting a better answer on the caching but it will take some time. I should be able to have the answer in a couple weeks, probably in the form of a brand new document outlining scope of support and the technical aspects all in one place.

Dell only supports M.2 2280 and 2.5 inch drives with the E5270. I have no documentation that would say for sure that a drive will work in the WWAN slot. It's likely the 2242 size for the WWAN slot. You'd have to try it at your own risk to find out for sure.

It's very rare for Dell to adjust any system firmware in order to limit a system to below NTFS or GPT standards. I have no reason to believe that a firmware limit has been set on the 5580. Even when the user's guide says 512GB max.

I pulled up my internal customization page and my internal parts replacement page and each reflects maximums of 512GB drives. This means that Dell simply hasn't, and currently does not sell the 5580 with a 1TB M.2. This does not mean that the firmware does not support drives that are over 512GB.

I suspect that Crucial has tested this by physically installing a 1TB M.2 drive and found that it worked for them. Now can I guarantee any one 1TB drive will work? No. You'll simply have to try it at your own risk. It's my firm opinion that most 1TB M.2 drives will work with the 5580 however.

So if we want to add an M.2 SSD or a 2.5'' HDD to, say, a Precision M5510, exactly where do we go (other than auction sites) to order the needed parts?

e.g. when I search for "88DJK" (the M.2 thermal pad), "XDYGX" (the HDD cable) or "3XYT5" (the rubber side isolators for HDDs), here on dell.com or dell.com/support, all I get is "No results found" for those part numbers.